One

Stranger in the Storm

It was going to rain.

I could feel it in the strong beat of the wind that opposed me as I pulled the window shut, and in the way the air, heavy and damp, felt upon my skin. A storm was fast approaching, and from the looks of the sky, it promised to be a violent one.

“Stop staring out the window, girl!” snapped Kunis, the infirmary’s head nurse. “You have work to do!”

I sighed with wistfully and turned around to face her. A large woman, her size more than doubled mine, and her booming voice reinforced her imposing stature. She had only given me this job as a maid so she would have another pair of helping hands. She knew that I had absolutely no medical talents or knowledge of herbs or anything of the sort, as the usual employee at an infirmary should. Instead, I served as the official washer of the laundry, and the provider of bandages and cold cloths for various injuries and fevers.

Ever since I had been left at the infirmary about three years ago, I’d had to make myself useful somehow. After all, my escort had disappeared shortly after, leaving me to my own devices, without any other options.

“I was just closing the windows,” I explained. “A storm is coming. It’s going to start pouring soon. You may want to recall the girls from their herb collecting.”

“Nonsense,” Kunis retorted, barely even glancing up at the sky. “It will hold off for at least another half hour. The girls will be done by then.”

I shrugged. “It’s your decision. I’ll go collect the laundry.”

Having spent so much time with Kunis, I was used to her angry antics, to the point where they hardly even fazed me. Ignoring her was usually the best tactic.

I made my way outside, and hurriedly began to unclip the dry clothes from the line, hoping I could beat the storm. Even though Kunis thought we had a half hour left, if she was mistaken and the clothes got wet, she would still murder me. When it came to rational thought, she was not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

However, my luck hadn’t completely run out, because I managed to finish before the rain fell. I gathered my things to go inside, when I spotted something in the distance. The infirmary was bordered by fields on one side, and forests on the other. Nothing of note existed beyond the fields except for the unruly and almost completely un-chartered Setena Sea, so hardly anyone headed in that direction. All of the travelers – mainly merchants and, of course, sick people and their escorts who want to find an inexpensive place where they could recover – came from the forest. What I saw disconcerted me, because the figure – whatever it was – approached from the fields. From the Setena Sea.

I squinted, in an attempt to get a better look, but could make out nothing but a dot. A moment later, as the figure drew closer, I could see that it had a vague human shape as well. But it wasn’t until he or she had come much, much closer that I identified him as a male and realized that he was staggering… and wearing a shirt and trousers completely doused in an unpleasantly bright red liquid. Blood.

I dropped the laundry and bolted inside. There was no way I could help this man on my own, so I decided to find Kunis or someone else. Despite her unfriendly demeanor, Kunis actually cared about the sick, having been trained in the ways of herbs and remedies since a young age.

The first person I ran into was not Kunis, however. It was Adelvia, the newest worker at the infirmary. She had corn-colored hair and sky-blue eyes, was most likely a year or two older than myself, and had arrived perhaps a week before. She seemed to have a great talent for healing wounds, but she was extremely quiet and reserved, and mostly kept to herself, her nose always in one book or another.

“Adelvia!” I cried. “I just spotted a man coming this way – from the fields! He’s covered in blood; we need to help him. Can you find Kunis?”

Wordlessly, she nodded, and quickly walked in the opposite direction from me. I tried to remain calm, hoping that this situation would be taken care of in no time – or, at least before the rain started.

I quickly found another, much younger worker named Asaria. She had been here for several months, and was perhaps fifteen, with long, charcoal hair and wide, russet eyes.

“Asaria, I’ve just spotted an injured man approaching from the fields,” I explained hastily. “Can you help me bring him inside?”

Asaria’s eyes widened even further. “Let’s go!”

We ran out the back door of the infirmary, and I felt the first cold raindrops fall. I cursed under my breath, realizing I’d forgotten to take Kunis’s laundry inside. She’d not forgive me for that, even if I’d done it to save a man’s life. I would just have to suffer the consequences.

“I don’t see anyone,” remarked Asaria.

I scanned the fields quickly, but I didn’t see anything either. Where had the man gone? How had he disappeared, just like that? He had to be around here somewhere…

“Perhaps he’s fainted,” I suggested. “We’d best search the fields.”

“But… the fields are so wide, and… and vast! We cannot possibly find an unconscious man out there!” exclaimed Asaria.

“We have to try,” I reminded her. “Kunis will be angrier if we leave someone to die.”

She nodded in agreement, and we went in separate directions into the tall, brownish green grass blades. I looked in every direction, but I saw nothing. Asaria did not yell or make any sort of noise, so I supposed she wasn’t having any luck either. Asaria had been right; this was hopeless. Now Kunis would be angry with me for allowing her laundry to get soaked and for failing to save a dying man.

The rain began to come down even harder. I could feel it pounding on my body and seeping through my white infirmary dress. Kunis might even be furious about my own wetness. She was obsessed with even the lowest worker at the infirmary’s appearance. In fact, by doing all of the things I’d just done, I would possibly end up making her angry enough to throw me out of the infirmary forever. Although that might not be a bad thing, considering how tedious it was sometimes. Right now was actually not one of those times, however… which reminded me that I should be looking for the man, not musing over Kunis’s cruelty.

I could hardly contain my surprise when I actually did stumble upon the man a moment later, lying almost motionless in a clearing in the field. Now the mud created by the constantly falling rain was mixing with the blood on his clothes. He was such an utter mess that I could barely tell what he actually looked like; only that he was fairly young and in bad condition.

At first, I did not notice that his chest was rising up and down ever so slightly. In fact, I did not notice until I heard him speak.

“H-hey there,” he choked out, and my eyes widened.

“Hold on just a moment,” I assured him. “Help will be here soon; you’re near the infirmary. The others will come soon. I just need to call for Asaria.”

I quickly called for Asaria before he could reply, although I figured he was in too weak of a condition to say much.

“I guess I’m… pretty lucky, then…” he said, a strange sort of smile appearing on his face.

Wait, a smile? Why would he smile while he was so badly injured? This man made absolutely no sense. And where had he come from, anyways? There was nothing but the Setena Sea beyond the fields, absolutely nothing. At least, that was what I had learned during my childhood studies.

“Don’t talk,” I ordered him. “Or strain yourself. You’ll only grow weaker.”

I was no doctor, but I at least had that much common sense.

“F-fine, if you… really think so,” he replied. “I… I always listen… to the pretty girls.”

“What?” I cried almost involuntarily.

Asaria and Kunis appeared moments later, with several others, including Adelvia, in tow. They surrounded the man.

“Carry him back to the infirmary, quickly!” ordered Kunis.

I assisted the others with the task of carrying in the man. It proved rather difficult, considering the fact that many of us were small, and barely had the physical strength to support even a small portion of the man’s weight. However, all together, we managed to lift him up and move quickly towards the welcoming shelter of the infirmary.

Somehow, I ended up supporting the man’s upper back. We finally came into sight of the infirmary after maybe five or ten minutes. As we approached, however, the man did something I did not expect.

“You know…” he said suddenly, almost causing me to drop him, “…You might want to change… when you get inside…”

“Well, of course,” I responded dumbly. “I am all wet.”

“No,” he said, with a small shaking motion of his head. “Because your dress… is starting to become… see-through.”

I could not keep my mouth from falling open in shock. Luckily, we’d made it inside the infirmary by then, and the others were hurriedly preparing an empty bed for us to place him on.

We let him down slowly, and the professionally trained healers went to work cleaning him up and removing his wet clothes. Embarrassedly, I left the room quickly, not wanting to see any more of the man’s body than I had to.

I couldn’t believe he’d said those things to me! About me being pretty, and about my dress being see-through… I felt like curling up in a ball and hiding out in my room for a while. Even Kunis’s jibes had never insulted me so.

As I headed to my room, it hit me. He had been flirting with me. Flirting with me, of all things! While he was fatally wounded! And dying! What sort of strange man was this? And I was certainly not pretty. I had dull gray eyes – more cloudy than silver, straight hair the color of sand (or dust bunnies, as my brother had pointed out so many times), and the flattest figure of any girl working at the infirmary, even those younger than me. Why in the world did he think I was pretty? What an absurd thing to say…

I put a new dress on before anyone else could comment on the transparency of my old one. Then I headed back towards where the man was being kept to see if Kunis needed me to do anything. However, the room where he had been placed was mobbed, and I realized that I’d never make it inside. This was the biggest injury that had needed to be treated here in a long time, so I could see why almost every healer was inside finishing up the job. At least I could rest assured that the man would most likely survive. Although that meant that I might have to speak with him again. And I did not especially want to.

I shook my head to clear my thoughts, and then decided to run outside and retrieve Kunis’s soaked laundry before she actually found out about it. I could dry it all over again to pass the time, and perhaps keep myself out of trouble. The man was occupying Kunis for me, so maybe he was useful for something after all.

--

Hours later, the excitement had died down. The man was completely clean, bandaged, and re-clothed. His major injuries – which had been some small cuts on his face, several cuts on his upper chest, and a sprained ankle – were taken care of, and Kunis declared that he’d recover with little else but a scar, so he had not been dying as I’d suspected. Now only Kunis and Adelvia tended to him, and no one required my assistance.

I was drying Kunis’s laundry by the fire when I overhead two of the younger workers talking, one of whom I recognized as Asaria.

“Do you know who he is?” whispered the one girl I did not know – she must have been new. Kunis was always hiring new girls. She liked others to do the dirty work for her, and there were so many families who could use the extra money their daughters made.

Asaria shook her head. “No. No one does. He just came out of nowhere. And he refused to talk about where he’s from or how he got injured. It’s a mystery.”

The other girl giggled. “Yes, I suppose. Maybe he’ll tell us when he feels better. He is rather handsome; I wonder if one of us could try to romance him in order to get answers!”

“Menina!” scolded Asaria. “What a horrible suggestion! He’s just been injured! I think we should let the poor man rest. I’m sure he’ll talk in good time.”

So this Menina thought the man was handsome. I suppose she’d seen him without all of that blood and mud on him. I didn’t know if I wanted to do the same. I had next to none experience with members of the opposite sex, and I’d felt strange next to the man before I’d even been able to see him properly.

Unfortunately, it was as if Kunis had read my thoughts and wanted to make my life even more miserable. She entered the room just then and came right towards me.

“Caedra, the man is feeling much better and is hungry,” she informed me. “I want you to make him some dinner and bring it to him. Oh, and help him eat it, if he needs any assistance.”

My heart sunk, but I hid this from Kunis. I didn’t want her to see my weakness.

“Yes, Kunis,” I said flatly, and left the laundry for the kitchen.

It seemed as though I was destined to talk to the man again after all.